‘Don’, 42 years on: Big B revisits film, says ‘no producer was willing to accept the title’, shares trivia about ‘Khaike Paan’ song

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is known for his acting skills and often grabs headlines for his Tumblr blog, where every now and then, he shares his thoughts on current events and reflects on his illustrious film career. The 77-year-old recently wrote a blog post about the blockbuster film ‘Don’ and took a walk down the memory lane.

Directed by Chandra Barot and written by Salim-Javed, the 1978 film featuring Bachchan in a double role—that of a mafioso and a simpleton— went on to become a blockbuster with its racy music, iconic dialogues and pulsating action.

In the blog post, Bachchan opened up about the struggles the film initially faced because its name was confused with a popular undergarment brand.


"When Chandra and Salim-Javed announced the name of the film as 'Don', no distributor was willing to accept the title. They all thought it to be named after the Dawn underwear, a popular brand during those times. The film 'Godfather' was just making a mark in film circles. The word Don was unknown till then," wrote the megastar.

The megastar also remembered the film’s producer, Nariman Irani, who died in a tragic accident before the film hit the theatres. "While he was shooting for a film Nariman Bawa suddenly noticed that the set where they were working was about to crumble and fall. A young child was playing around it. Nariman, fearing the kid would get crushed, ran and jumped on the kid and saved him but in doing so he injured himself, as he fell.

Bachchan said one of the dance moves in the popular "Khaike Paan" song—which was added on actor Manoj Kumar's suggestion— was based on his son, Abhishek.

"There is a dance move in the song where the steps are me moving sideways, that's a copy of Abhishek. As a little fellow, whenever he heard music, he would dance and do this side step..I copied that from him for the song,” wrote the thespian.

(With inputs from PTI)